Barclay de Tolly (Russian nobility)


Barclay de Tolly is the name of a Baltic German noble family of Scottish origin. During the time of the Revolution of 1688 in Britain, the family migrated to Russia from Towy in Aberdeenshire. It then became a German-speaking family in Livonia.
Weinhold Gotthard Barclay de Tolly was a poruchik of the Russian Army and a descendant of one of the burgomasters of Riga. He was the first of his family to be accepted into the Russian nobility. He was married to Margaretha Elisabeth von Smitten, and they had four sons: Emil Johann, a General in the Russian service; B. Michael Bogdanovitch; C. Andrei Bogdanovitch, a Colonel; and Michael Bogdanovitch, a very prominent military commander who was made a count in 1813 and a prince in 1815 by Alexander I of Russia.
After the extinction of the original Barclay de Tolly princely line upon the death in 1871 of Prince Michael's son, Magnus, Alexander II of Russia allowed Prince Michael's sister's grandson, Alexander von Weymarn, to assume the title of Prince Barclay de Tolly-Weymarn in 1872.

Notable members